Latest Integral membrane proteins Stories
Using a high-resolution single-molecule study technique, University of Illinois researchers have seen the very subtle differences between two branches of an important family of neurotransmitter-gated ion channels.Professor Claudio Grosman and research scientist Gisela Cymes published their work in the journal Nature.Nicotinic-type receptors are proteins embedded in the membranes of nerve and muscle cells that regulate activity. A neurotransmitter, such as acetylcholine, triggers a small...
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, the Medical University of South Carolina and American Life Science Pharmaceuticals of San Diego have demonstrated that oral administration of a cysteine protease inhibitor, E64d, not only reduces the build-up of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brains of animal models for Alzheimer's disease, but also results in a substantial improvement in memory deficit.A paper detailing the findings has been published as an early online version and is...
Researchers pinpoint a small RNA that spurs cells to manufacture a particular splice variant of a key neuronal protein, potentially promoting Alzheimer's disease (AD) or other types of neurodegeneration. The study appears in the May 30 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org).Like a movie with an alternate ending, a protein can come in more than one version. Although scientists have identified numerous proteins and RNAs that influence alternative splicing, they haven't deciphered...
(Ivanhoe Newswire) "“ Researchers pinpoint a small RNA that triggers cells to manufacture a particular splice variant of a key neuronal protein, potentially promoting Alzheimer's disease (AD) or other types of neurodegeneration.Like a movie with an alternate ending, a protein can come in more than one version. Although scientists have identified numerous proteins and RNAs that influence alternative splicing, they haven't deciphered how cells fine-tune the process to produce specific protein...
An essential component of animal nervous systems"”sodium channels"”evolved prior to the evolution of those systems, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have discovered."The first nervous systems appeared in jellyfish-like animals six hundred million years ago or so," says Harold Zakon, professor of neurobiology, "and it was thought that sodium channels evolved around that time. We have now discovered that sodium channels were around well before nervous...
New research in the FASEB Journal suggests that aquaporin-4, a water transporting protein, plays a role in brain inflammation via a mechanism involving astrocyte swelling and cytokine releaseA new protein, called aquaporin-4, is making waves and found to play a key role in brain inflammation, or encephalitis. This discovery is important as the first to identify a role for this protein in inflammation, opening doors for the development of new drugs that treat brain inflammation and other...
Fables have long cast scorpions as bad-natured killers of hapless turtles that naively agree to ferry them across rivers. Michigan State University scientists, however, see them in a different light.Ke Dong, MSU insect toxicologist and neurobiologist, studied the effects of scorpion venom with the hopes of finding new ways to protect plants from bugs. The results, which are published in the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, have revealed new ways in which the venom...
The latest Perspectives in General Physiology series examines the ion selectivity of cation-selective channels and transporters. The series appears in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of General Physiology (www.jgp.org).According to Perspectives Editor Olaf Andersen in his introduction, a key tool in most recent studies on ion selectivity has been the so-called "toy models," which emphasize the fluid-like features of the selectivity filter and allow for the isolation of key...
New discoveries may lead to insights into drug abuse and depressionA team of scientists from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Weill Cornell Medical College has shed light on the molecular workings of transporter proteins, molecular machines embedded in the cell membranes of neurons that modulate the transfer of signals between cells and recycle neurotransmitters.The research, published today in the journal Nature, reveals with unprecedented detail how the molecule...
In humans, insulin suppresses amyloid precursor protein and enzymes that convert it to beta amyloidA low dose of insulin has been found to suppress the expression in the blood of four precursor proteins involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, according to new clinical research by University at Buffalo endocrinologists. The research, published in March online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, suggests that insulin could have a powerful, new role to play in...
